Engine: Verner 3VLA

[Brock]

More Engine Mount progress.  It seems to be a dance of two steps forward one step backwards but the progress is in the right direction.

Well I've finally finished welding up the airframe side of the ring mount.  Even managed to mill off .4" from each of the very thick/heavy bolt-bushings.  During the process I manged to blow through the tubing twice just like in the first picture.  The one pictured I was able to repair w/o a patch but the second one (can't find the picture) was twice as large.  It needed a band-aid which turned out not looking too bad (second pic).

So with half the mount done it is time to turn my attention to the engine side of the mount.  The process was to remove the mount from the airframe, where it was mostly welded to prevent misalignment, and install it back into the jig.  Now you probably can not tell from one picture but I'm struggling with what is the lower side of the mount.  Those two bolt-bushings extending from the top of the jig will eventually bolt into the engine shock mounts.  Thing is, they are really/rather close (90mm).  So I'm not quite sure how I am going to mount/brace them.  I'll have to work on other projects (brakes, seat) until I decide what design to use.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Ok, I don't want to sound like a know it all.. but I *have* been doing this stuff since the 60s.  If you look at how radials are normally hung, they are mounted to the ring.
Like so.

[Brock]

Well now you tell me 
Stuborn as I am you might have just said "I bet you can't make it work like that".  So I'll keep plugg'n away on my current plan.  Huh, and I was thinking it was clever to put the ring 50% between both it's mount points.  If after it's done and I have to add gussets or such, so be it.

One thought on the ring being mounted to the engine is that it gives clear access to the accessories.  That would be the carb in this case.

[Chuck in Indiana]

One thought on the ring being mounted to the engine is that it gives clear access to the accessories.  That would be the carb in this case.

Uhh, yeah. I have done a *lot* of fooling around with jetting and have the scars on my arms to prove it even with the engine mounted to the ring. 

[Brock]

More mount progress.  Hope to finish it up tomorrow.  Couldn't help but trial fit it, I'm very happy with it.  Still have a few more tubes to weld in, once I decide where.  ;-)

Don't look closely at the welds.  Many of them are still just tacks.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Attaboy..

[Brock]

With the mount finished there was nothing that could be done but to mount the engine and make airplane noises.  No, actually it was nice to confirm everything that my head dreamed up instead of sleeping at night.  Today was the first time I've actually seen the front of the engine as it's been face down in styrofoam.  I noticed one thing very curious, perhaps needing attention from Verner.  This engine has dual plugs, came with dual ignition units, but only one connector off the front of the engine to drive only one ignition unit.  Anyone else have dual plugs?

[Brock]

The Verner is back on the airframe and now it's time to do some plumbing work.  First thing I did (this afternoon) was to build a hose to replace the Cyl #1 oil line, since some have uncovered it's unique quality of being un airworthy.  I'm using a very interesting hose from Pegasus Auto Racing.  This hose is very light weight, teflon, good for over 1000 psi and 30in-HG vacuum (think oil pickup hose), does not burn and is easy to assemble.  So far I'm impressed having put this one hose to the test.  I'll likely be using this stuff for the fuel-line once I build a wing to hold such fuel.

Next I played with the V3 oil tank I found.  I settled upon this 8" tank as it turns out to present a smaller frontal area than a 6" horizontal tank.  Also, it will have a deeper pool of oil.  This tank should only need to be half full to hold the required 3l of oil.  The brackets (as you can see from the pic) are on the heavy side and will be replaced with T-bolt clamps, somehow.

[Brock]

Ever cut a hose clamp in half?  What about a T-bolt hose clamp?  What started out as a problem turned out to be the solution.  I had ordered these 8" T-bolt hose clamps which turnd out to be significantly larger than 8".  Seems these are measured by the "ID of the hose they go around".  Note to self:  Read the small print.  Well in my attempt to shorten the clamps I realized that this modified hose is EXACTLY what I was needing all along.  It creates the perfect spot for the ADEL clamps which will eventually connect (two) to the airframe just under the firewall and (two) to the engine mount.  Now, I only wish those T-Bolt clamps had been another1-1/4" longer.  Then I could easily cut twice for two ADEL locations on each clamp.  I may try to weld a SS tab on the t-Bolt for the second clamp.

Another little note.  Since this tank will be half full (or is that half empty?) with 3l of oil I'm thinking of installing a "oil sight glass" smack dab in the center of the flat side.  This will eliminate the need for a dip stick.  See last picture.

[Brock]

Well, it's a wrap.  The oil tank is finished.  I was not energetic enough to hone the Aluminum-Tig skill for the job but had a willing friend who was happy to do it.  Someone said that it looks like a 'mine'.  It does have more pokey parts than I had pictured.  Now to find some hoses.  I'm curious what folks have used on their V3's.  Especially the pickup hose and 1" drain.  Did you use a straight drain hose or a 45/90 elbo?  I might try to find an AN/metric fitting for the pickup hose.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Aircraft hoses..this is no place to cheap out. Any one of those hoses failing will have you walking shortly.  Since the heads gravity drain, I made the level of the oil a smidgen lower than the bottom heads in level flight.

[Brock]

The first sight-guage was S.S. but I found an Aluminum one that in the hand feels like a pound lighter.  Next I wanted a magnetic drain plug.  With an old fitting adapter some magnets and good O'l JB weld the plug was a cinch.

[Brock]

I'm a fan of AN fittings, barbed hoses, not so much.  So I decided to install an AN fitting at the oil-pickup point.  Apart from finding a metric (14 x 1.5mm thread) to AN fitting, this should be simple.  Right?  Well turns out when an aluminum fitting is installed into an aluminum case, and neither are annodised, galling is a high likelyhood.  Add into that mix a bit of red thread lock and things get rather tricky.  Well, removing the stock fitting just about ruined my day.  It did ruin the fitting which was just fine.  After an hour, with a pick and then a purpose purchased tap, the case threads were back to serviceable conditions.

Next was choosing a fitting.  Although the ID of these fittings were considerably smaller than the Verner recommended 10mm (I think they are specking the hose not the fittings) flow restriction, so I'm told, is culmative.  Thus a slight restriction at the fitting should not be an issue.  Well, we will see.  I settled on a Steel -8AN fitting.  It actually had the largest ID spec next to the whimpy verner barb.  It comes at a weight penalty but at least it won't gall the threads if I ever have to remove it.

[Dan_]

Maybe you could drill the ID out some.  It would lighten it for sure and maybe help the flow.  

You do great work btw...

[Brock]

Maybe you could drill the ID out some. ...

I did consider drilling it out but could not decide (by how much) how thin the walls can be and still have overkill strength.  Since it is a straight thread and it is sealed with an O-ring and thread compound there is very little tightening torque.  So it's only a matter of vibration or possibly being bumped.  I'll leave it like this for now.